The invention relates to a connector assembly, comprising female and male connectors, each connector comprising a housing and a plurality of contact elements mounted in the housing, said contact elements being arranged in rows and columns, wherein the housing is provided with rows of slots receiving first sections of the contact elements, the housing of the female connector having at least one receiving space for receiving a part of the housing of the male connector, wherein a row of contact elements is located at both sides of the receiving space of the female connector housing and a row of contact elements is located at both sides of the part of the male connector housing to be inserted into the receiving space, the contact elements of the male connector contacting the contact elements of the female connector when the male and female connectors are mated.
Connectors of this type are known in various embodiments, see for example US-A-4 734 060. In the connector disclosed in US-A-4 734 060 the housing of both connectors is a single moulded part wherein only two rows of contact elements are provided. Generally, the number of contact elements in row and column directions depends on the application of the connectors and a range of connectors with different numbers of contact elements in row and column directions should be available. The design of the known connector imposes limitations regarding miniaturization and manufacturing flexibility. In particular regarding miniaturization and increasing signal speed, it is important to provide an efficient shielding of the signal contact elements while maintaining a high signal density on the surface area needed for the connector.
EP-A-0 563 942 shows a connector assembly according to the preamble of claim 1. In this known connector assembly, the female connector comprises a one part housing of insulating material having two receiving spaces, wherein a metal shielding is inserted into an internal partition of the housing as a shielding between the pair of rows of contact elements of each receiving space. The male connector comprises a housing of insulating material, wherein a metal shielding is embedded in an internal petition of the housing.
The invention aims to provide a connector assembly of the above-mentioned type with an efficient shielding and high manufacturing flexibility.
To this end the connector assembly of the invention is characterized in that the female connector housing comprises a housing part for each row of contact elements, each housing part including an elongated mainly rectangular flat printed circuit board supporting the corresponding row of contact elements on a first surface and having a conductive ground plane on an opposite second surface, wherein a housing section of insulating material is mounted on said first surface, said housing section having one of said rows of slots, wherein the female connector housing comprises at least one module, each module having two interconnected printed circuit boards having their first surfaces directed towards each other and determining one receiving space, and in that the male connector housing comprises at least one housing part adapted to be inserted into the receiving space of a module during mating of the male and female connectors and provided with two rows of contact elements, each housing. part including an elongated mainly rectangular flat metal plate with an overmoulded layer of insulating material at both sides, each insulating layer having one of said rows of slots with contact elements.
In this manner a connector assembly is obtained wherein when the male and female connectors are mated, the ground planes of the printed circuit boards of the female connector and the metal plate(s) of the male connector provide a very efficient shielding between successive rows of interconnected contact elements. Moreover, the number of contact elements in column direction can be easily adapted by adding further modules to the male and female connectors. Thereby, the connector assembly design of the invention allows to provide any number of rows without tooling-up new housing moulds, resulting in a flexible and low cost manufacturing.